I got pinged about this from my wife yesterday, when she was shopping next door at J Crew on the Santa Monica Promenade (I am still in Bloomington, IN today, at my alma mater): High-end MVNO Helio has opened its flagship store on the Promenade, and we have some pics of it here. The idea is a high-end lifestyle store..as you can see from the pics, besides the phones, the store also has paintings from emerging artists such as Tim Biskup, Luke Chueh, Suragluxe, Yumiko Kayukawa, Buff Monster, and users can download digital versions of the art as wallpaper for their Helio phone or purchase these original pieces from the store.
More stores will open soon in San Diego, Palo Alto and Denver and in New York in early 2007.
Gensler, the architects behind the Apple Store, are the ones designing the stories for Helio as well.
Related: Helio’s Opening Up Five Dedicated Retail Stores; First On Santa Monica Promenade